Dollars. they were spending money like they were drunken sailors. now lyle and erik menendez face the death penalty, first-degree murder. greedy rich kids kill ozzie and harriet on a sunday night in beverly hills, and there s much more to the story than that. the courtroom at the l.a. superior courthouse in van nuys was actually a very tiny courtroom, and so there were a dozen media people that got to see the trial in the courtroom every day. writer dominic dunn appeared to hear opening statements. i m just a writer here covering this. i had just gotten out of school and started as a cub reporter at this legal newspaper. i got one of the seats in the courtroom. there were the lawyers and the brothers. my editors and i knew from the get-go that it was going to be captivating as [bleep].
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Reporter #4: over the past four weeks, prosecutors have tried to prove that the two menendez brothers coldly plotted and carried out the execution of their parents for two reasons over the past 4 weeks, prosecutors have tried to prove that the two menendez brothers coldly plotted and carried out the execution of their parents for two reasons: hatred and greed, and defense lawyers concede that their clients did kill their parents, but not for those reasons. we re back, and we welcome leslie abramson, the attorney for erik menendez. she s regarded in los angeles and around the country as one of the best defense attorneys in the business. if i was in trouble, i would think very seriously about calling leslie abramson because she is that good. this case has been treated like a soap opera by you all for a long time, and it isn t a soap opera. this is real life. leslie abramson was incredibly passionate.
Literally watching along, gavel to gavel, on an up-and-coming cable network, court tv. the menendez brothers became infamous pop culture celebrities, not just for killing their parents, but for the reasons they claim drove them to do so. their riveting testimony is next. check it out. the press calls the case the beverly hills mansion murders, and the story reads like one of the unsold scripts that circulate here in hollywood. what s the problem? someone killed my parents. are these the words of a saddened shocked son or the cool words of a coldhearted killer? prosecutors contend the menendez brothers were hoping to collect on an inheritance estimated at $14 million. they were spending quite a bit of money on lavish items. some estimates say that in the first 6 or 7 months after the deaths, they spent a million
To his little boy, and one of them was to stick tacks like this in his thighs and in his butt and to run needles across his penis. the defense attorneys had given these, you know, extraordinarily theatrical closing arguments. pam bozanich didn t have a lot of theatrics. don t assume that just because people have money, they can t be violent. i remember being really angry during my closing statement, and they bought the right ammunition. they bought the right guns. they killed their parents. look at these defendants. look at their crimes. look at what lyle menendez has tried to sell you as a defense. look at the lies that he has told you on the witness stand, and ask yourself can you believe anything that this man says? my hope was to make the jury think they were liars. she stood up and just very